Part 21

The following note refers to the Onteddu (single bullock) Ganigas, who claim superiority over those who employ two bullocks in working their oil-mills. The former belong to the right-hand, and the latter to the left-hand faction. Among them are various sub-divisions, of which the Deva and Onteddu may intermarry, while the Kasi, Teli (gingelly: Sesamum), and Chandanapu are endogamous. Like other Telugu castes they have gotras, some of which are interesting, as there are certain prohibitions connected with them. For example, members of the Badranollu and Balanollu gotras may not cut the tree Erythroxylon monogynum. In like manner, members of the Viranollu and Viththanollu gotras are forbidden to cut Feronia elephantum, and those of the Vedanollu gotra to cut Nyctanthes arbor-tristis. Members of certain other gotras do not cultivate turmeric, sugarcane, or the millet (Panicum miliare).

The Onteddu Ganigas are Saivites, and disciples of Lingayat Brahmans (Aradhyas). Some, however, wear the sacred thread, and others bear on the forehead the red streak of the Vaishnavites. In some places, their special deity is Chaudeswara, who is the god of some of the weaving classes. In the Kistna district they claim Mallikarjunasvami as their deity.

Their primary occupation is oil-pressing, but some are traders in cotton, oil-seeds, etc., or cultivators. In some localities, the animal which works the oil-mill is not blindfolded, while it is in others, because, it is said, it would otherwise fall down after a few revolutions. Crushing gingelly oil is, according to the Shastras, a sinful act, but condoned inasmuch as Devatas use this oil for lamps, and men in temples. For the removal of the oil-cake, or turning the seeds in the mill, the left hand only is used. Burning the tongue with a piece of gold, as a means of purification after some offence has been committed, is a common practice.

The marriage rites conform, for the most part, to the Telugu type. But, while the wrist thread is being tied on, common salt is held in the hand. A dagger (baku) is then given to the bridegroom, who keeps it with him till the conclusion of the ceremonies. On the wedding day, the bridegroom wears the sacred thread. The tali is not an ordinary bottu, but a thread composed of 101 thin strings, which is removed on the last day, and replaced by a bottu. On the third day, the bride and bridegroom worship a jammi tree (Prosopis spicigera), and the latter, removing his sacred thread, throws it on the tree. Five young men, called Bala Dasulu, also worship the tree, and, if they are wearing the sacred thread, throw it thereon. The dead are as a rule buried, in a sitting posture if the deceased was an orthodox Saivite. If a young man dies a bachelor, the corpse is married to an arka plant (Calotropis gigantea), and decorated with a wreath made of the flowers thereof. The final death ceremonies are performed on the eleventh day. Food is offered to crows and the soul of the dead person, who is represented by a wooden post dressed with his clothes. The bangles of a widow are broken near the post, which is finally thrown into a tank or stream.

Ganiga further occurs as an occupational name for Lingayat oil-vendors, and for Mogers who are employed as oil-pressers.

Ganta.--Ganta or Gantla, meaning a bell, has been recorded as an exogamous sept of Kamma and Balija. Gantelavaru, or men of the bell, is given by Mr. S. M. Natesa Sastri [138] as the family name of one section of the Donga (thieving) Dasaris, and of the Kabberas, who are said to join the ranks of this criminal class. Gantugazula occurs, in the Mysore Census Report, 1901, as a sub-division of Koracha. In the Vizagapatam Manual, the Tiragati Gantlavallu are described as repairing hand-mills, catching antelopes, and selling their skins.

Ganti (a hole pierced in the ear-lobe).--An exogamous sept of Gudala.

Garadi.--Garadi or Garadiga is the name of a class of mendicants in the Telugu country and Mysore who are snake-charmers, practice sleight of hand, and perform various juggling and mountebank tricks.

Garappa (dry land).--A synonym of Challa Yanadi.

Gatti.--A small caste of cultivators, found chiefly near Kumbla and Someswara in the Kasaragod taluk of South Canara. Other names for the caste are Poladava and Holadava, both signifying men of the field. Like the Bants, they follow the aliya santana law of inheritance (in the female line), have exogamous septs or balis, and, on the day of the final death ceremonies, construct car-like structures, if the deceased was an important personage in the community. The Bants and Gattis interdine, but do not intermarry. The headman of the Gattis is called Gurikara. The God of the Someswara temple is regarded as the caste deity, and every family has to pay an annual fee of four annas to this temple. Failure to do so would entail excommunication.

Gattu (bank or mound).--An exogamous sept of Devanga.

Gaud.--A title of Sadar.

Gauda.--The Gaudas or Gaudos are a large caste of Canarese cultivators and cattle-breeders. "Gauda and Gaudo," Mr. H. A. Stuart writes, [139] "are really two distinct castes, the former being Canarese and the latter Uriya. Each name is, however, spelt both ways. The two names are, I presume, etymologically the same. The ordinary derivation is from the Sanskrit go, a cow, but Dr. Gustav Oppert contends [140] that the root of Gauda is a Dravidian word meaning a mountain. Among the Canarese, and to a less extent among the Uriyas also, the word is used in an honorific sense, a custom which is difficult to account for if Dr. Oppert's philology is correct." "Gaudas," Mr. Stuart writes further, [141] "also called Halvaklumakkalu (children of the milk class), are very numerously represented in the South Canara district. They have a somewhat elaborate system of caste government. In every village there are two headmen, the Grama Gauda and the Vattu or Gattu Gauda. For every group of eight or nine villages there is another head called the Magane Gauda, and for every nine Maganes there is a yet higher authority called the Kattemaneyava. The caste is divided into eighteen baris or balis, which are of the usual exogamous character. The names of some of these are as follows: Bangara (gold), Nandara, Malara (a bundle of glass bangles, as carried about for sale), Salu, Hemmana (pride or conceit), Kabru, Goli (Portulaca oleracea, a pot-herb), Basruvogaru (basru, belly), Balasanna, and Karmannaya. Marriage is usually adult, and sexual license before marriage with a member of the caste is tolerated, though nominally condemned. The dhare form of marriage (see Bant) is used, but the bridal pair hold in their joined hands five betel leaves, one areca nut and four annas, and, after the water has been poured, the bridegroom ties a tali to the neck of the bride. Divorce is permitted freely, and divorced wives and widows can marry again. A widow with children, however, should marry only her late husband's elder brother. If she marries any one else, the members of her former husband's family will not even drink water that has been touched by her. They burn their dead. On the third day, the ashes are made into the form of a man, which is cut in two, buried, and a mound made over it. In the house two planks are placed on the ground, and covered with a cloth. On one of these, a vessel containing milk is placed, and on the other a lamp, rice, cocoanut, pumpkin, etc., are deposited. The agnates and some boys go round the plank three times, and afterwards go to the mound, taking with them the various articles in a cloth. Three plantain leaves are spread in front of the mound, and cooked food, etc., placed thereon. Four posts are set up round the mound, and cloths stretched over them, and placed round the sides. On the sixteenth day, sixteen plantain leaves are placed in a row, and one leaf is laid apart. Cakes, cooked fowl's flesh, toddy and arrack (liquor) are placed on the leaves in small leaf-cups. The assembled agnates then say "We have done everything as we should do, and so our ancestors who have died must take the man who is now dead to their regions. I put the leaf which is apart in the same row with the sixteen leaves."

"Once a year, in the month of Mituna (June-July), the Gaudas perform a ceremony for the propitiation of all deceased ancestors. They have a special preference for Venkataramaswami, to whom they make money offerings once a year in September. They employ Brahmins to give them sacred water when they are under pollution, but they do not seek their services for ordinary ceremonies. They are, for the most part, farmers, but some few are labourers. The latter receive three or four seers of paddy a day as wages. Their house language is Tulu in some places, and Canarese in others, but all follow the ordinary system of inheritance, and not the custom of descent through females. Their title is Gauda."

As bearing on the superstitious beliefs of the people of South Canara, the following case, which was tried before the Sessions Judge in 1908, may be cited. A young Gauda girl became pregnant by her brother-in-law. After three days' labour, the child was born. The accused, who was the mother of the girl, was the midwife. Finding the delivery very difficult, she sent for a person named Korapulu to come and help her. The child was, as they thought, still-born. On its head was a red protuberance like a ball; round each of its forearms were two or three red bands; the eyes and ears were fixed very high in the head; and the eyes, nose, and mouth were abnormally large. Korapulu and the girl's younger sister at once carried the mother out of the out-house lest the devil child should do her harm or kill her. The accused called for a man named Isuf Saiba, who was standing in the yard outside. He came in, and she asked him to call some of the neighbours, to decide what to do. The child, she said, was a devil child, and must be cut and killed, lest it should devour its mother. While they were looking at the child, it began to move and roll its eyes about, and turn on the ground. It is a belief of the villagers that such a devil child, when born and brought in contact with the air, rapidly grows, and causes great trouble, usually killing the mother, and sometimes killing all the inmates of the house. The accused told Isuf Saiba to cover the child with a vessel, which he did. Then there was a sound from inside the vessel, either of the child moving or making some sound with its mouth. The accused then put her hand under the vessel, dragged the child half way out, and then, while Isuf Saiba pressed the edge of the earthenware vessel on the abdomen of the child, the accused took a knife, and cut the body in half. When the body was cut in two, there was no blood, but a mossy green liquid, or a black liquid, oozed out. The accused got two areca leaves, and put one piece of the child on one, and one on the other, and told Isuf Saiba to get a spade, and come and bury them. So they went out into the jungle close to the house, and Isuf Saiba dug two holes about half a yard deep, one on one hillock, and one on another. In these two holes the two pieces of the child were separately buried. The object of this was to prevent the two pieces joining together again, in which case the united devil child would have come out of the grave, and gone to kill its mother. The birth and death of this devil child were not kept secret, but were known throughout the village.

Gauda or Gaudu further occurs as a title of Idiga, Kuruba, and Vakkaliga, an exogamous sept and gotra of Kuruba and Kurni, and a sub-division of Golla.

Gaudi.--It is recorded, in the Mysore Census Report, 1901, that a Maleru (temple servant) woman, who cohabits with one of a lower class than her own, is degraded into a Gaudi.

Gaudo.--The Gaudos are described, in the Madras Census Reports, 1891 and 1901, as "the great pastoral caste of the Ganjam Oriyas. Like those of all the cowherd classes, its members say that they are descended from the Yadava tribe, in which Krishna was born (cf. Idaiyan). The majority of the Gaudos in the northern districts are now cultivators, but there is evidence that the keeping and breeding of cattle is their traditional occupation. The most important sub-division is Sollokhondia; many of them are herdsmen and milk-sellers. Fourteen sub-divisions have been reported. They are Apoto, Behara, Bolodiya, Dongayato, Dumalo, Gopopuriya, Kolata, Komiriya, Kusilya, Ladia, Madhurapurya, Mogotho, Pattilia, and Sollokhondia." In the Census Report, 1871, it is noted that "there are many Gowdus of high social standing, who have gotten unto themselves much wealth in cattle. These men own, in many instances, large herds of buffaloes, which, being reared in the boundless pastures of the hills, are much prized by the cartmen of the low country for draught purposes."

Of the sub-division noted above, Behara is apparently a title only. Bolodiya is the name of a section of the Tellis, who use pack-bullocks (bolodi, a bull) for carrying grain about the country. Pattilia must be a mistake for Pachilia. The sections among the Gaudos which are recognised by all castes in the Ganjam district are Sollokhondia, Bhatta, Gopopuriya, Madhurapuriya, Mogotho, Apoto, and Pachilia. These, with the exception of Gopopuriya and Madhurapuriya, seem to be endogamous sub-divisions. The Bhatta Gaudos go by the name of Gopopuriya in some places and Madhurapuriya in others, both these names being connected with the legendary history of the origin of the caste. The Apoto and Bhatta Gaudos are sometimes employed as palanquin-bearers. The Mogotho Gaudos, who live on the hills, are regarded as an inferior section, because they do not abstain from eating fowls. The Sollokhondia section is regarded as superior, and consequently all Oriya castes, Brahman and non-Brahman, will accept water at the hands of members thereof. An orthodox Oriya non-Brahman, and all Oriya Brahmans, will not receive water from Telugu or Tamil Brahmans, whom they call Komma Brahmans, Komma being a corrupt form of karma, i.e., Brahmans who are strict in the observance of the various karmas (ceremonial rites).

The Sollokhondia Gaudos are agriculturists, rear cattle and sheep, and sometimes earn a living by driving carts. They have gotras, among which the most common are Moiro (peacock), Nagasiro (cobra), and Kochimo (tortoise). Their caste council is presided over by a hereditary headman called Mahankudo, who is assisted by a Bhollobaya, Desiya, and Khorsodha or Dhondia. The Khorsodha is the caste servant, and the Desiya eats with a delinquent who is received back into the fold after he has been tried by the council. The Sollokhondias are for the most part Paramarthos, i.e., followers of the Chaitanya form of Vaishnavism. They show a partiality for the worship of Jagannathaswami, and various Takuranis (village deities) are also reverenced. Bairagis are the caste priests.

The marriage prohibitions among the Sollokhondias are those which hold good among many Oriya castes, but marriage with the maternal uncle's daughter (menarikam) is sometimes practiced. On the evening preceding the marriage day (bibha), after a feast, the bride and bridegroom's parties go to a temple, taking with them all the articles which are to be used in connection with the marriage ceremonial. On their way back, seven married girls, carrying seven vessels, go to seven houses, and beg water, which is used by the bridal couple for their baths on the following day. Either on the day before the wedding day, or on the bibha day, the bridegroom is shaved, and the bride's nails are pared. Sometimes a little of the hair of her forehead is also cut off. The marriage rites do not materially differ from those of the Bhondaris (q.v.).

The dead, excepting young children, are burnt. The eldest son carries a pot of fire to the burning ground. On the day following cremation, the mourners revisit the spot, and, after the fire has been extinguished, make an image of a man with the ashes on the spot where the corpse was burnt. To this image food is offered. Seven small flags, made of cloths dyed with turmeric, are stuck into the shoulders, abdomen, legs, and head of the image. A fragment of calcined bone is carried away, put into a lump of cow-dung, and kept near the house of the deceased, or near a tank (pond). On the ninth day after death, towards evening, a bamboo, split or spliced into four at one end, is set up in the ground outside the house beneath the projecting roof, and on it a pot filled with water is placed. On the spot where the deceased breathed his last, a lamp is kept. A hole is made in the bottom of the pot, and, after food has been offered to the dead man, the pot is thrown into a tank. On the tenth day, a ceremony is performed on a tank bund (embankment). The piece of bone, which has been preserved, is removed from its cow-dung case, and food, fruits, etc., are offered to it, and thrown into the tank. The bone is taken home, and buried near the house, food being offered to it until the twelfth day. On the eleventh day, all the agnates bathe, and are touched with ghi (clarified butter) as a sign of purification. Sradh (memorial service) is performed once a year on Sankaranthi (Pongal) day. Food, in the form of balls, is placed on leaves in the backyard, and offered to the ancestors. Some food is also thrown up into the air.

All sections of the Gaudos have adopted infant marriage. If a girl fails to secure a husband before she attains puberty, she has to go through a form of marriage called dharma bibha, in which the bridegroom is, among the Sollokhondias, represented by an old man, preferably the girl's grandfather, and among the other sections by a sahada or shadi tree (Streblus asper) or an arrow (khando).

Like various other Oriya castes, the Gaudos worship the goddess Lakshmi on Thursdays in the month of November, which are called Lakshmi varam, or Lakshmi's day. The goddess is represented by a basket filled with grain, whereon some place a hair ball, which has been vomited by a cow. The ball is called gaya panghula, and is usually one or two inches in diameter. The owner of a cow which has vomited such a ball regards it as a propitious augury for the prosperity of his family. A feast is held on the day on which the ball is vomited, and, after the ball has been worshipped, it is carefully wrapped up, and kept in a box, in which it remains till it is required for further worship. Some people believe that the ball continues to grow year by year, and regard this as a very good sign. Bulls are said not to vomit the balls, and only very few cows do so.

Gauliar.--A synonym for Lingayat Gollas, or Kannadiyans.

Gaundala.--A synonym of Gamalla.

Gauri.--A division of Okkiliyan, named after Gauri, Siva's consort. The equivalent Gaura occurs among the Komatis, and Gauriga among the Medaras. One division of the Kabberas is called Gaurimakkalu, or sons of Gauri.

Gautama.--A Brahmanical gotra adopted by Bhatrazus, Khatris, and Kondaiyamkottai Maravans. Gautama was a sage, and the husband of Ahalya, who was seduced by Indra.

Gavala (cowry shell: Cypræa arabica).--An exogamous sept of Madiga. A cotton thread string, with cowries strung on it, is one of the insignia of a Madiga Matangi.

Gavalla.--A synonym for Gamalla.

Gavara.--It is noted, in the Madras Census Report, 1891, that "this caste is practically confined to the Vizagapatam district, and they have been classed as cultivators on the strength of a statement to that effect in the District Manual. Gavara is, however, an important sub-division of Komatis (traders), and these Gavaras are probably in reality Gavara Komatis. These are so called after Gauri, the patron deity of this caste."

For the following note I am indebted to Mr. C. Hayavadana Rao. A tradition is current that the Gavaras originally lived at Vengi, the ancient capital of the Eastern Chalukyan kings, the ruins of which are near Ellore in the Godavari district. The king was desirous of seeing one of their women, who was gosha (in seclusion), but to this they would not consent. Under orders from the king, their houses were set on fire. Some of them bolted themselves in, and perished bravely, while others locked up their women in big boxes, and escaped with them to the coast. They immediately set sail, and landed at Pudimadaka in the Anakapalli taluk. Thence they marched as far as Kondakirla, near which they founded the village of Wadapalli or Wodapalli, meaning the village of the people who came in boats. They then built another village called Gavarla Anakapalli. They received an invitation from king Payaka Rao, the founder of Anakapalli, and, moving northwards, established themselves at what is now known as Gavarapeta in the town of Anakapalli. They began the foundation of the village auspiciously by consecrating and planting the sandra karra (Acacia sundra), which is not affected by 'white-ants,' instead of the pala karra (Mimusops hexandra), which is generally used for this purpose. Consequently, Anakapalli has always flourished.

The Gavaras speak Telugu, and, like other Telugu castes, have various exogamous septs or intiperulu.

Girls are married either before or after puberty. The custom of menarikam, by which a man marries his maternal uncle's daughter, is in force, and it is said that he may also marry his sister's daughter. The remarriage of widows is permitted, and a woman who has had seven husbands is known as Beththamma, and is much respected.

Some Gavaras are Vaishnavites, and others Saivites, but difference in religion is no bar to intermarriage. Both sections worship the village deities, to whom animal sacrifices are offered. The Vaishnavites show special reverence to Jagganathaswami of Orissa, whose shrine is visited by some, while others take vows in the name of this god. On the day on which the car festival is celebrated at Puri, local car festivals are held in Gavara villages, and women carry out the performance of their vows. A woman, for example, who is under a vow, in order that she may be cured of illness or bear children, takes a big pot of water, and, placing it on her head, dances frantically before the god, through whose influence the water, which rises out of the pot, falls back into it, instead of being spilt.

The Vaishnavites are burnt, and the Saivites buried in a sitting posture. The usual chinna (little) and pedda rozu (big day) death ceremonies are performed.

Men wear a gold bangle on the left wrist, and another on the right arm. Women wear a silver bangle on the right wrist, and a bracelet of real or imitation coral, which is first worn at the time of marriage, on the left wrist. They throw the end of their body-cloth over the left shoulder. They do not, like women of other non-Brahman castes in the Vizagapatam district, smoke cigars.